François Le Moyne
Head of a young man seen in profile
Estimate
10,000 - 15,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
François Le Moyne
(Paris 1688 - 1737)
Head of a young man seen in profile
Black and red chalk, heightened with white chalk;
bears old attribution in pen and brown ink, lower centre: Coreggio
325 by 229 mm
Ian Woodner (1903-1990), New York,
by whose heirs sold, London, Christie’s, 2 July 1991, lot 120a (as Italian School, 17th Century);
with David Jones, London & Paris, Old Master Drawings, 2002, cat. 29, reproduced in colour;
sale, London, Christies, 8 July 2008, lot 98
Jean-Luc Bordeaux, François Le Moyne: (1688-1737). Catalogue Raisonné. New Findings and Legacy, revised ed., Paris 2025, pp. 52-54, cat. D.11, reproduced in colour
In the recent revised and updated edition of his catalogue raisonné of Le Moyne's works, Jean-Luc Bordeaux dates this fascinating sheet, executed 'most certainly from life', to circa 1717-1720. Bordeaux supports the attribution to the artist on stylistic grounds and stresses the striking resemblance between the present head and some comparable painted heads, including 'the beardless Christ' in the Wedding of Cana in Sens, and the 'handsome Jacob' in Jacob and Rachel (Private Collection).1 He also suggests that Le Moyne could have executed 'this singular physiognomy' before 1717 and reused it at a later date.
Moreover, observing some graphic characteristics of this sheet, Bordeaux notes that 'Le Moyne's choice of long and expressive parallel lines left by strong black chalk marks to portray often the hair of his male figures and his unmistakable use of red chalks for the ear, for modelling the young man's lips and his nostrils, and for the heightening of the contour line of his neck seem to point back to his early graphic style dating from the decade prior to 1720.'
Bordeaux also stressed, in relation to the present sheet, the important point that early in his career Le Moyne had copied chalk drawings by Barocci, and sketched 'numerous heads in the manner of the Italian master',3 noting that Barocci's 'draftsmanship played a decisive and influential role upon Le Moyne's artistic sensibility.'4
1.Sens, Trésor de la Cathédral Saint-Ètienne (inv. TC F10); Bordeaux, op. cit., pp. 258-259, cat. P.19
2.Paris, Collection Helena and Guy Motais de Narbonne; ibid., pp. 279-280, p. 281 reproduced, cat. P. 37
3.Respectively: Rennes, Musée des Rennes, inv. no. C. 135-1 and New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. no. 10.45.16; idem, pp. 46-48, cats. D. 5-6
4.Ibid., p. 47
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